Russian filmmaker building $110M war-themed ski resort

War propaganda and the skiing mindset usually mix as well as toothpaste and orange juice, but don’t tell that to Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, who is in the midst of building a $110 million war-themed ski resort in an effort to stir feelings of patriotism in younger generations of Russians.

“We came up with the idea for a ski resort, related to the film Citadel and the general image of war,” Mikhalkov was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter as saying to a Russian news source. “Ski slopes will be located on an imitated battlefield, marked with barbed wire, but it will be made of rubber. There will also be burnt tanks, but you won’t get injured bumping on them.”

Who wants to try to send it over a tank? Photo: Courtesy of Tony Bowden/Flickr

The film he is referring to is Burnt by the Sun 2: Citadel, the sequel to his Oscar-winning 1994 film Burnt by the Sun. Unlike his first film, Citadel was a resounding failure, and is considered one of the biggest box office flops in Russian cinema history.

The resort Mikhalkov is building will be located near the city Nizhny Novgorod, where Mikhalkov filmed the World War II series. The ski resort will be called – wait for it – “Citadel.”

And, if a long day skiing at a Citadel has skiers feeling hungry, Mikhalkov has that covered as well: He is in the midst of opening a “patriotic” fast-food restaurant chain he hopes will act as an alternative to (the American company) McDonald’s.